Truly we live in an age of madness, for middle-class Christians are now counting themselves amongst Britain's most persecuted. In what alternate reality are they existing, I wonder?
This remarkably brash non-sequitur is a far cry from their usual stance of holier-than-thou, and comes after Peter and Hazelmary Bull turned a gay couple away from their Bed & Breakfast on the grounds of their sexuality.
It was not in keeping with their gentle Christian beliefs to allow two men to share a bed, we were told. As if this small detail was supposed to gild their shame-faced intolerance.
Needless to say, the court ruling demonstrated that Christianity does not sit above the law. They were, after all, running an establishment. It surely goes without saying that one has to abide by the law of the land in doing so - the law, in this case, rightly asserts that homosexuals are to be treated the same as everybody else.
A radical notion? A point of contention? I think not.
Yet the Bulls tried to play on right-wing sympathies by claiming that
their equal rights had been overlooked. They claimed that they were operating well within the law by turfing out not just homosexuals, but all non-married couples too. This Bed & Breakfast, registered first and foremost as a business and set just a few meters off the main road, was not a hotel, but 'their home'. As such, it only follows (according to The Daily Mail) that they should be allowed to do, say and think whatever they wish without fear of backlash. This, despite the fact that the Bulls relied solely on paying custom and public opinion to stay afloat.
Stop the world for a moment, I think I need to get off!
Suffice it to say, the Bull's were summarily prosecuted when the judge deemed their actions to have been discriminatory, and the couple now face losing their home after paying out thousands in compensation to the gay couple they turned away. Good.
Persecutors or persecuted? Peter & Hazelmary Bull.
Maybe this will serve as a lesson that Christianity is not a gold-embossed meal ticket through the legal system. But let's not hold our breaths!
For this exacting of justice in yet another case where unflinching prejudice masquerades as religious belief only served to enflame Christian fervor.
They are now brazenly claiming to be the defenseless and utterly down-trodden victims of bigotry and intolerance. Why? Because they are no longer able to stamp over the rights of others without a firm reminder that they are now living in 21st Century civilization, not Nazi Germany.
I don't know what's more heinous; intolerant people decrying intolerance or perhaps the most sheltered and privileged group in society claiming persecution where none exists.
Needless to say, the nation is having none of it. Owen and Eunice Johns - the Christian couple banned from adopting when they said homosexually is 'against God's law and morals' - have had their discrimination claim rejected by the courts.
Eunice had claimed in a written letter to the court that the rights of homosexuals were being placed well above her own, but this couldn't be any further from the truth. In decrying homosexuality, she had invariably put any future children in her care in a precarious and potentially shaming situation.
Lord Justice Munby and Justice Beatson declared: 'It is hard to know where to start with this travesty of the reality.'
They continue: 'It is fundamental to our law, to our polity and to our way of life, that everyone is equal, equal before the law and equal as a human being endowed with reason and entitled to dignity and respect.' Such dignity and respect the Johns were not willing to afford gay children in their care.
Even Prime Minister David Cameron sided with the gay lobby in denouncing the Johns' faulty claims of anti-Christian discrimination. The feeling seems to be widespread - that it is utterly disgusting for a couple to want to have - no,
expect to have - their rights elevated far above those of others, based purely on religious leaning, and that their intolerance should not be seen as such because they just so happened to have based their entire moral code on a chronically mistranslated work of fiction that is well over 2000 years old.
Owen & Eunice Johns had their discrimination case thrown out of court.
Yet even still, Christians believe themselves to be a targeted minority in Britain. Electrician Colin Atkinson cried 'persecution!' in a fit of pique when his employer asked him to remove a palm cross from his works van.
He responded with the usual disillusioned diatribe of 'but what about them bloody Muslims in Burqas?', as if degrading the religious requirements of others would make his own entirely optional display seem positively holy in comparison. And all this from a man who worships a loving God.
The long and short of the matter is that Wakefield and District Housing (WDH) have a policy that applies to those of all religions which prohibits personal items and artifacts in vehicles.
A statement from the company set out to solve any confusion and make it crystal clear: 'We fully support the right of our employees to wear religious symbols while at work... but we simply don't allow employees to display personal items in our company vans'.
Case closed? Fair play? Apparently not. For Colin is now considering legal action on the grounds of - yes, you guessed it - religious discrimination. Despite the fact that he can display his palm cross on his work desk, or around his neck without any level of hassle. Despite the fact that he expressed his disgust at required Muslim attire whilst demanding
his requirements be met.
When is this nonsense going to stop? One thing's for certain - we should resist this illiberal nonsense robustly, for Britain is predominantly secularist and we cannot afford to bow to the twisted will of the minority. Only 16% of Britons are regular Church-goers, yet apparently the same laws and restrictions do not apply to these 'gentle, loving' citizens who fervently oppose gay marriage, abortion and single-parent families.
And while they continue to claim discrimination and waste tax-payers money on nonsensical legal battles born out of ignorance and sheer stupidity, the truth of the matter in Britain is far more disturbing.
More Mosques are firebombed and vandalized than Churches or village halls, and a crucifix has never drawn the same pantomime gasps of horror as a woman wearing the full Burqa veil in public. In France, it is now a punishable offence to wear the full veil.
Colin Atkinson thinks it's 'disgusting' that Muslim women are allowed to wear the full Burqa veil, but demands the right to display his cross in a works van, despite company policy.
Christian conjugal traditions even helped prop up marital rape, until it was made illegal in the early 1990's. For many women under fanatical Christianity, they were, and still are, mere possessions to be used and abused by their husbands. The old vows, which have since been dropped by the mainstream, advanced the popularly-held notion that women were to 'obey' their husbands.
They also appear blithely unaware of how Christianity - the misunderstood, peaceful religion under threat, apparently - forcefully imposed itself on over half the world, and continues to do so today. They are amongst the last people to still believe that West is Best, and would much rather preach hate than all the love and acceptance in the so-called 'good book'.
In the states, millions of African Americans are now practicing Christianity. Not out of choice, but because their ancestors were forced to adopt the religion of the white slave master. Their home-grown religions and beliefs are long gone. This is also the case in many parts of India, where the British Empire mercilessly swept through, supplanted the native faith and thrust Christianity on millions of people.
Churches were initially built as a means of heavily taxing the largely illiterate and uneducated masses in feudal England. Christian practitioners would scaremonger the people by damning them to Hell if they didn't attend Church every day - and there was, of course, a hefty attendance fee attached.
In 325 BCE, Roman Emperor Constantine made it compulsory to be a pious Christian. The penalty for deferring was death, and many atheists were burned at the stake or exiled. Philosophical and atheistic texts were burned, and the first anti-freedom of speech laws were passed in Christian courts.
There are some parallels with post-9/11 America, where the 'with us or against us' attitude favors and shelters evangelical Christianity - including radical pastor Terry Jones who publicly burns Korans without fear of prosecution or rebuke - while throwing Islam to the dogs, without so much as a second thought given to the thousands of peaceful Muslims who oppose extremism.
Statistics released by the FBI and the British Government even declare that, out of 1575 victims of anti-religious hate crimes, 10% were Muslim and only a tiny 1% were Protestant or Catholic. It hardly takes a genius to figure out who the real victims are here.
But in this blame game, facts and figures don't seem to matter. Christians are still bemoaning their lack of special legal treatment in ugly cases where their discrimination and ignorance ruins the lives of innocent people. They seem to believe, misguidedly, that what was said, thought and written 2000 years ago by a bunch of slave-owning misogynists still holds true today, and that their discrimination and incitement to hatred should be seen as well-intentioned preaching.
We are told countless times that the 'righteous' have a duty to 'save' the sinners of this world. To me, it's a flamboyant way of sticking one's oar in where it isn't wanted or needed.
Perhaps it's time we tell them to sit down and shut up, before they begin to pose a real danger to pluralist Britain and it's key virtues and values - most notably, equality and tolerance. In a largely progressive society, I fear they are irreparably displacing themselves.
They should count themselves lucky that that's all their facing and stop whining! It is not discrimination when they are forced to accept that everyone is deserving of dignified, equal treatment. Only a firm but fair reminder that they haven't reached the hallowed heights of Heaven yet.